Lehigh University men's basketball team excited to play Duke in NCAA tournament

View full sizeExpress-Times Photo | LISA MASSEYLehigh University men's basketball players, from left, Gabe Knutson, Jordan Hamilton and Holden Greiner react after it's revealed that they will be playing Duke in their first game of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

The Patriot League champion Mountain Hawks (26-7) are the 15th seed in the South Region. The Blue Devils (27-6), who lost to Florida State in the Atlantic Coast Conference semifinals, earned the second seed.

Duke is in the tournament for the 17th straight season and 28th time in 29 years.

“Greensboro, here we come,” Lehigh coach Brett Reed said. “We’re going down there with a purpose and a mission, and that is to compete with and beat Duke.”

Lehigh will be a considerable underdog. The Mountain Hawks are 0-4 all-time in the NCAA tournament. Duke is 96-31 with 15 Final Four appearances and four national championships.

“Obviously it’s a big challenge,” Lehigh junior forward Gabe Knutson said, “but anybody can win on any night. We’re confident in our team and confident in our own abilities. We’re excited right now. This is just great.”

“It’s all about defense,” Lehigh senior center Justin Maneri said. “We’ll find a way to score like we always do. We can score with anybody in the country. We’ve got to cover the 3-point line. (Duke) shoots the 3-pointer well.”

“They have a lot of great 3-point shooters,” said Mountain Hawks junior guard C.J. McCollum, the nation’s fifth leading scorer at 21.9 points per game. “(Seth) Curry, (Austin) Rivers, (Andre) Dawkins, and even (Ryan) Kelly can step out and shoot it.”

Reed says it’s a chance-of-a-lifetime to be matched up with legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski, who’s 854-231 in 32 seasons at Duke.

“Being in the industry, I have a tremendous amount of respect for him as a coach,” Reed said. “I had a telephone conversation with him one time and I’ve seen him at several recruiting events.

“It’s an honor to be in the NCAA tournament. The door is open for us to compete on one of the grandest stages in college sports.”

Lehigh’s last NCAA tournament appearance was in 2010 when the 16th-seeded Mountain Hawks lost 90-74 to top-seed Kansas in Oklahoma City.

“That was a great experience,” said McCollum, who scored 26 points as a freshman against the Jayhawks. “I’m a more well-rounded player and more mature than I was then.”

“Now we have a few years under our belt,” said Knutson, also a freshman in 2010. “The experience really helps.”

Lehigh will likely be playing against a partisan Duke crowd. Greensboro is approximately 50 miles from the Blue Devils’ campus in Durham, N.C.

“It’s going to be so much fun playing in North Carolina, where they have maybe the craziest fans in the country,” Maneri said. “Upsetting Duke in North Carolina would be even that much sweeter.”

“A lot of teams are just happy to be in the tournament,” McCollum said, “but we want to go out leaving our mark.”